The 2008 London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

It’s that time of year again.Now celebrating its 22nd birthday, the London Lesbian andGay Film Festivalwill screen at the British Film Institute on London’s South Bank fromMarch 27 to April 10, offering queer-themedshorts, documentaries, and feature films from around the world.

The Chinese Botanist’s Daughter

You can view a complete listof the films on offer here. Among the ones reviewed or mentionedby AfterEllen.com are the romantic tragedy The Chinese Botanist’sDaughter(pictured above), the AmericanTV pilot Don’t Go featuring Guinevere Turner,and the Oscar-winning short documentary Freeheld, about the fight of dying lesbianpolicewoman Laurel Hester to see her pension go to her partner StacieAndree.

There’s also the Taiwaneseromance Spider Lilies, the German drama Vivere, the French coming-of-age film Water Lilies, and the South African period romance The World Unseen.

The World Unseen

There’s the 1996 American documentary It’sElementary — Talking About Gay Issues in School, and its 2007follow-up, It’s STILLElementary — The Movie and the Movement.And there’s the HBO film Life Support, starring Queen Latifah

as an HIV-positive charity worker (although unfortunately her characterisn’t a lesbian).

A program titled “The Face of Another:Imagining Lesbian Desire”offers a chance to see Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring fall in love in Mulholland Dr. It also includes films that explorefemale relationships but are not so overtly lesbian-themed, like IngmarBergman’s Persona and the Madonna–Rosanna Arquette

flick Desperately Seeking Susan.

Two of my favorite crushesare featured in the festival: one being Atonement actress Romola Garai, who stars in the François Ozon film Angel.Sadly, the film seems to have been included in the festival because Ozonis openly gay and because it has a camp sensibility, rather than becauseGarai herself has any lesbian encounters in the movie — although evidentlyshe does get a massage from co-star Lucy Russell:

Meanwhile, the beautiful Frenchactress Ludivine Sagnier (pictured below left) plays bisexualin Les Chansons D’Amour (Love Songs), a musical about a threesome betweena man and two women that becomes complicated when the man finds himselfdrawn towards another man. You can view a trailer for the film here.

There’s also a chance tosee Cate Blanchett in her acclaimed gender-bending turn as BobDylan in I’m Not There.

Although some films may alreadybe listed as fully booked, be aware that it’s always worth callingthe box office to see if they’ve had any returns. And while you’reat the BFI, why not stop by their Mediatheque and watch a selection of archive Britishlesbian films for free?